[Mom2Froggy]

I am all for UHC. All too often I have wanted to bring my child into the doctor, or my parents are sick, or I am sick and we simply can not afford it. I had to bring my daughter to the ER once and did it because I was so worried about her, but half of me was wondering what the hell the bill would be after. People shouldn't have to think about that when they or their loved ones are sick.

3 years ago when I had my first bout of bells palsy I was told that one of the possibilities for my extreme headache and facial paralysis was a tumor in the brain. I needed a CT Scan and MRI, and I just couldn't afford it. I was at the hospital being told I could have a tumor and we didn't know how we could pay. We eventually worked a deal with the hospital, but you shouldnt have to be thinking about that in those times. Payment should be the LAST thing on your mind. I had a MRI 2 weeks ago and even with insurance have to pay over 600 bucks. For a student in college and single parent, that SUCKS.

I am all for UHC, I don't think healthcare is a privilege, it should be a right.

[Fluga]

Originally Posted by Jess is Write

Companies that provide health care should be forced to take less! The costs of health care are so ridiculously inflated that I'm comfortable using the word extortion. Charging a patient $25 for a single Tylenol is not okay. Neither is charging a patient $1,000 PER NIGHT for a hospital room. The reason every other industrialized country can afford UHC is because providers aren't charging an asinine amount for care.

Whoa!
In Finland you pay for each day you stay in the hospital. This is a flat fee and not all UHC countries have this. I paid €125 for staying 4 nights in the hospital.

Originally Posted by Jess is Write

My hospital bill from Cooper's birth was itemized. The room (JUST the room, everything else was billed as a separate line item) was $999/night.

Here's a thought, imagine how much manpower goes into making those bills. Someone has to list everything apparently down to every single IV tubing or a tylenol. This alone has to be costing a fortune.

[Fluga]

Originally Posted by rachna

The problem is that what providers BILL is not what providers get PAID. For example, an hour of therapy with me costs you 100 dollars an hour. I am cheap, actually, most people here charge around 120 an hour. Insurance companies pay me about 60 an hour. But lets say I only charge 60? Well the insurance company will say "hmmm...lets pay her 30!" So I HAVE to overcharge

Then comes the real issue. A client comes in without insurance. It is ILLEGAL for me to charge them less then my rate. I can do the "sliding scale thing" but there are limitations to it, and it is considered FRAUD for me to not charge them 100 dollars an hour like everyone else! So who can afford basically 52k a year for therapy?

Quite honestly insurance companies need to pay some providers (therapists!!!) better rates, and stop creating policies which FORCE us to inflate our rates to ridiculous levels.

Another way that UHC in here works doesnt change your fee at all. Say you moved to Finland and I wanted to start seeing you (or any other specialist that is private, public ones would be much cheaper/free). At the appointment I would pay you your $100 that you charge. I would then take my recete to the soc. service and they would refund me $20 which is the standard refund for psychotherapy (numbers are a guestimate btw).

Now if after my appointment with you we see that I have some major issues and we think that I should see you weekly for a while I can put in an application for a grant. That will get me a $50 refund for every time and the grant is given for a year at a time.

It seems to me that you guys fight UHC a lot because you think that it means that the goverment is going to start dictating the rates the docs/therapists get when it really is not like that at all. Plus from the sounds of it the insurance agencies you have are muddling things up quite a bit already.

And ftr, Rachna this post wasnt posted as much as a response to you, your writing this out like this just provided an excellent base to show how things can work differently with UHC.